NETTLES.

(1)Cordelia.Crown'd with rank Fumiter and Furrow-weeds,
With Burdocks, Hemlock, Nettles, Cuckoo-flowers.
King Lear, act iv, sc. 4. (3).
(2)Queen.Crow-flowers, Nettles, Daisies, and Long Purples.
Hamlet, act iv, sc. 7 (170). (See [Crow-flowers].)
(3)Antonio.He'd sow't with Nettle-seed.
Tempest, act ii, sc. 1 (145).
(4)Saturninus.Look for thy reward
Among the Nettles at the Elder Tree.
Titus Andronicus, act ii, sc. 3 (271).
(5)Sir Toby.How now, my Nettle of India?
Twelfth Night, act ii, sc. 5 (17).[176:1]
(6)King Richard.Yield stinging Nettles to my enemies.
Richard II, act iii, sc. 2 (18).
(7)Hotspur.I tell you, my lord fool, out of this Nettle, danger,we pluck this flower, safety.
1st Henry IV, act ii, sc. 3 (8).
(8)Ely.The Strawberry grows underneath the Nettle.
Henry V, act i, sc. 1 (60).
(9)Cressida.I'll spring up in his tears, an 'twere a Nettleagainst May.
Troilus and Cressida, act i, sc. 2 (190).
(10)Menenius.We call a Nettle but a Nettle, and
The fault of fools but folly.
Coriolanus, act ii, sc. 1 (207).
(11)Laertes.Goads, Thorns, Nettles, tails of wasps.
Winter's Tale, act i, sc. 2 (329).
(12)Iago.If we will plant Nettles or sow Lettuce.
Othello, act i, sc. 3 (324). (See [Hyssop].)
(13)Palamon.Who do bear thy yoke
As 'twer a wreath of roses, yet is heavier
Than lead itselfe, stings more than Nettles.
Two Noble Kinsmen, act v, sc. 1 (101).

The Nettle needs no introduction; we are all too well acquainted with it, yet it is not altogether a weed to be despised. We have two native species (Urtica urens and U. dioica) with sufficiently strong qualities, but we have a third (U. pilulifera) very curious in its manner of bearing its female flowers in clusters of compact little balls, which is far more virulent than either of our native species, and is said by Camden to have been introduced by the Romans to chafe their bodies when frozen by the cold of Britain. The story is probably quite apocryphal, but the plant is an alien, and only grows in a few places.

Both the Latin and English names of the plant record its qualities. Urtica is from uro, to burn; and Nettle is (etymologically) the same word as needle, and the plant is so named, not for its stinging qualities, but because at one time the Nettle supplied the chief instrument of sewing; not the instrument which holds the thread, and to which we now confine the word needle, but the thread itself, and very good thread it made. The poet Campbell says in one of his letters—"I have slept in Nettle sheets, and dined off a Nettle table-cloth, and I have heard my mother say that she thought Nettle cloth more durable than any other linen." It has also been used for making paper, and for both these purposes, as well as for rope-making, the Rhea fibre of the Himalaya, which is simply a gigantic Nettle (Urtica or Böhmeria nivea), is very largely cultivated. Nor is the Nettle to be despised as an article of food.[177:1] In many parts of England the young shoots are boiled and much relished. In 1596 Coghan wrote of it: "I will speak somewhat of the Nettle that Gardeners may understand what wrong they do in plucking it for the weede, seeing it is so profitable to many purposes. . . . Cunning cookes at the spring of the yeare, when Nettles first bud forth, can make good pottage with them, especially with red Nettles" ("Haven of Health," p. 86). In February, 1661, Pepys made the entry in his diary—"We did eat some Nettle porridge, which was made on purpose to-day for some of their coming, and was very good." Andrew Fairservice said of himself—"Nae doubt I should understand my trade of horticulture, seeing I was bred in the Parish of Dreepdaily, where they raise lang Kale under glass, and force the early Nettles for their spring Kale" ("Rob Roy," c. 7). Gipsies are said to cook it as an excellent vegetable, and M. Soyer tried hard, but almost in vain, to recommend it as a most dainty dish. Having so many uses, we are not surprised to find that it has at times been regularly cultivated as a garden crop, so that I have somewhere seen an account of tithe of Nettles being taken; and in the old churchwardens' account of St. Michael's, Bath, is the entry in the year 1400, "Pro Urticis venditis ad Lawrencium Bebbe, 2d."

Nettles are much used in the neighbourhood of London to pack plums and other fruit with bloom on them, so that in some market gardens they are not only not destroyed, but encouraged, and even cultivated. And this is an old practice; Lawson's advice in 1683 was—"For the gathering of all other stone-fruit, as Nectarines, Apricots, Peaches, Pear-plums, Damsons, Bullas, and such like, . . . in the bottom of your large sives where you put them, you shall lay Nettles, and likewise in the top, for that will ripen those that are most unready" ("New Orchard," p. 96).

The "Nettle of India" (No. [5]) has puzzled the commentators. It is probably not the true reading; if the true reading, it may only mean a Nettle of extra-stinging quality; but it may also mean an Eastern plant that was used to produce cowage, or cow-itch. "The hairs of the pods of Mucuna pruriens, &c., constitute the substance called cow-itch, a mechanical Anthelmintic."—Lindley. This plant is said to have been called the Nettle of India, but I do not find it so named in Shakespeare's time.

In other points the Nettle is a most interesting plant. Microscopists find in it most beautiful objects for the microscope; entomologists value it, for it is such a favourite of butterflies and other insects, that in Britain alone upwards of thirty insects feed solely on the Nettle plant, and it is one of those curious plants which mark the progress of civilization by following man wherever he goes.[178:1]

But as a garden plant the only advice to be given is to keep it out of the garden by every means. In good cultivated ground it becomes a sad weed if once allowed a settlement. The Himalayan Böhmerias, however, are handsome, but only for their foliage; and though we cannot, perhaps, admit our roadside Dead Nettles, which however are much handsomer than many foreign flowers which we carefully tend and prize, yet the Austrian Dead Nettle (Lamium orvala, "Bot. Mag.," v. 172) may be well admitted as a handsome garden plant.

FOOTNOTES:

[176:1] This a modern reading; the correct reading is "metal."

[177:1]

"Si forte in medio positorum abstemius herbis
Vivis et Urtica."—Horace, Ep. i, 10, 8.

"Mihi festa luce coquatar Urtica."—Persius vi, 68.

[178:1] "L'ortie s'établit partout dans les contrées temperées à la suite de l'homme pour disparaitre bientôt si le lieu on elle s'est ainsi implanteè cesse d'etre habité."—M. Lavaillee, Sur les Arbres, &c., 1878.

NUT, see [Hazel].

NUTMEG.

(1)Dauphin.He's [the horse] of the colour of the Nutmeg.
Henry V, act iii, sc. 7 (20).
(2)Clown.I must have . . . Nutmegs Seven.
Winter's Tale, act iv, sc. 3 (50).
(3)Armado.The omnipotent Mars, of lances the almighty,
Gave Hector a gift—
Dumain.A gilt Nutmeg.
Love's Labour's Lost, act v, sc. 2 (650).

Gerard gives a very fair description of the Nutmeg tree under the names of Nux moschata or Myristica; but it is certain that he had not any personal knowledge of the tree, which was not introduced into England or Europe for nearly 200 years after. Shakespeare could only have known the imported Nut and the Mace which covers the Nut inside the shell, and they were imported long before his time. Chaucer speaks of it as—

"Notemygge to put in ale
Whether it be moist or stale,
Or for to lay in cofre."—Sir Thopas.

And in another poem we have—

"And trees ther were gret foisoun,
That beren notes in her sesoun.
Such as men Notemygges calle
That swote of savour ben withalle."

Romaunt of the Rose.

The Nutmeg tree (Myrista officinalis) "is a native of the Molucca or Spice Islands, principally confined to that group denominated the Islands of Banda, lying in lat. 4° 30´ south; and there it bears both blossom and fruit at all seasons of the year" ("Bot. Mag.," 2756, with a full history of the spice, and plates of the tree and fruit).

OAK.

(1)Prospero.If thou more murmur'st, I will rend an Oak,
And peg thee in his knotty entrails,
Tempest, act i, sc. 2 (294).
(2)Prospero.To the dread rattling thunder
Have I given fire, and rifted Jove's stout OakWith his own bolt.
Ibid., act v, sc. 1 (44).
(3)Quince.At the Duke's Oak we meet.
Midsummer Night's Dream, act i, sc. 2 (113).
(4)Benedick.An Oak with but one green leaf on it wouldhave answered her.
Much Ado About Nothing, act ii, sc. 1 (247).
(5)Isabella.Thou split'st the unwedgeable and gnarled Oak.
Measure for Measure, act ii, sc. 2 (114). (See [Myrtle].)
(6)1st Lord.He lay along
Under an Oak, whose antique root peeps out
Upon the brook that brawls along this wood.
As You Like It, act ii, sc. 1 (30).
(7)Oliver.Under an Oak, whose boughs were Mossed with age,
And high top bald with dry antiquity.
Ibid., act iv, sc. 3 (156).
(8)Paulina.As ever Oak or stone was sound.
Winter's Tale, act ii, sc. 3 (89).
(9)Messenger.And many strokes, though with a little axe,
Hew down and fell the hardest-timber'd Oak.
3rd Henry VI, act ii, sc. 1 (54).
(10)Mrs. Page.There is an old tale goes that Herne the Hunter,
Sometime a keeper here in Windsor Forest,
Doth all the winter time at still midnight
Walk round about an Oak, with great ragg'd horns.
* * * * *
Page.Why yet there want not many that do fear
In deep of night to walk by this Herne's Oak.
* * * * *
Mrs. Ford.That Falstaff at that Oak shall meet with us.
Merry Wives of Windsor, act iv, sc. 4 (28).
Fenton.To night at Herne's Oak.
Merry Wives of Windsor, act iv, sc. 6 (19).
Falstaff.Be you in the park about midnight at Herne'sOak, and you shall see wonders.
Ibid., act v, sc. 1 (11).
Mrs. Page.They are all couched in a pit hard by Herne's Oak.
* * * * *
Mrs. Ford.The hour draws on. To the Oak, to the Oak!
Ibid., act v, sc. 3 (14).
Quickly.Till 'tis one o'clock
Our dance of custom round about the Oak
Of Herne the Hunter, let us not forget.
Ibid., act v, sc. 5 (78).
(11)Timon.That numberless upon me stuck as leaves
Do on the Oak, have with one winter's brush
Fell from their boughs, and left me open, bare
For every storm that blows.
Timon of Athens, act iv, sc. 3 (263).
(12)Timon.The Oaks bear mast, the Briers scarlet hips.
Ibid. (422).
(13)Montano.What ribs of Oak, when mountains melt on them,
Can hold the mortise?
Othello, act ii, sc. 1 (7).
(14)Iago.She that so young could give out such a seeming
To seel her father's eyes up close as Oak.
Ibid., act iii, sc. 3 (209).
(15)Marcius.He that depends
Upon your favours swims with fins of lead
And hews down Oaks with rushes.
Coriolanus, act i, sc. 1 (183).
(16)Arviragus.To thee the Reed is as the Oak.
Cymbeline, act iv, sc. 2 (267).
(17)Lear.Oak-cleaving thunderbolts.
King Lear, act iii, sc. 2 (5).
(18)Nathaniel.Though to myself forsworn, to thee I'll faithful prove;
Those thoughts to me were Oaks, to thee like Osiers bow'd.
Love's Labour's Lost, act iv, sc. 2 (111).
[The same lines in the "Passionate Pilgrim.">[
(19)Nestor.When the splitting wind
Makes flexible the knees of knotted Oaks.
Troilus and Cressida, act i, sc. 3 (49).
(20)Volumnia.To a cruel war I sent him, from whence he returned,his brows bound with Oak.
Coriolanus, act i, sc. 3 (14).
Volumnia.He comes the third time home with the Oaken garland.
Ibid., act ii, sc. 1 (137).
Cominius.He proved best man i' the field, and for his meed
Was brow-bound with the Oak.
Ibid., act ii, sc. 2 (101).
2nd Senator.The worthy fellow is our general; he's therock, the Oak, not to be wind-shaken.
Ibid., act v, sc. 2 (116).
Volumnia.To charge thy sulphur with a bolt
That should but rive an Oak.
Ibid., act v, sc. 3 (152).
(21)Casca.I have seen tempests when the scolding winds
Have rived the knotty Oaks.
Julius Cæsar, act i, sc. 3 (5).
(22)Celia.I found him under a tree like a dropped Acorn.
Rosalind.It may well be called Jove's tree, when it dropsforth such fruit.
As You Like It, act iii, sc. 2 (248).
(23)Prospero.Thy food shall be
The fresh-brook muscles, wither'd roots, and husks
Wherein the Acorn cradled.
Tempest, act i, sc. 2 (462).
(24)Puck.All their elves for fear
Creep into Acorn-cups, and hide them there.
Midsummer Night's Dream, act ii, sc. 1 (30).
(25)Lysander.Get you gone, you dwarf—you beed—you Acorn!
Ibid., act iii, sc. 2 (328).
(26)Posthumus.Like a full-Acorned boar—a German one.
Cymbeline, act ii, sc. 5 (16).
(27)Messenger.About his head he weares the winner's Oke.
Two Noble Kinsmen, act iv, sc. 2 (154).
(28) Time's glory is . . . .
To dry the old Oak's sap.
Lucrece (950).

Here are several very pleasant pictures, and there is so much of historical and legendary lore gathered round the Oaks of England that it is very tempting to dwell upon them. There are the historical Oaks connected with the names of William Rufus, Queen Elizabeth, and Charles II.; there are the wonderful Oaks of Wistman's Wood (certainly the most weird and most curious wood in England, if not in Europe); there are the many passages in which our old English writers have loved to descant on the Oaks of England as the very emblems of unbroken strength and unflinching constancy; there is all the national interest which has linked the glories of the British navy with the steady and enduring growth of her Oaks; there is the wonderful picturesqueness of the great Oak plantations of the New Forest, the Forest of Dean, and other royal forests; and the equally, if not greater, picturesqueness of the English Oak as the chief ornament of our great English parks; there is the scientific interest which suggested the growth of the Oak for the plan of our lighthouses, and many other interesting points. It is very tempting to stop on each and all of these, but the space is too limited, and they can all be found ably treated of and at full length in any of the books that have been written on the English forest trees.